Right. After posting a jpg link to my desktop asking for suggestions what should be added etc ive had people PM me asking 'how do i skin xp'
SOOOOOO i thought 'i know ill write a simple guide'
Im not a 'professional'
I dont profess to be any good whatsoever but im fairly happy with the results ive got so far...
so here it all is in easy to follow steps...
STEP 1
Download StyleXP for free from
http://www.tgtsoft.com and install.
STEP 2
Head on over either to
http://www.deskmod.com or
http://www.themexp.org and browse some of the themes they have available. Download the one you want and follow the instructions to install.
Ive had minor problems with themes downoaded so what ive done is use style xp to install them. Double click the taskbar icon for it and itll show you "install new theme" then point it at the ZIP file youve downloaded and itll do the rest.
OKEY DOKE
If your happy with the theme youve installed then fine. Just stop reading here. However if you wish to customise further then read on.
STEP 3
Now you have chosen a theme and installed it you may wish to add a rather funky calender thing onto the desktop. IT can be moved about and just shows the current date. You can place reminders etc etc. Head on over to
http://www.iki.fi/rainy and download RainLender.
It adds an 'extra something' to the desktop.
Now, again you have a choice. Windows by default will allow you to place a toolbar at the top of the screen where you can drag and drop in things like My Computer, Network Neighbourhood and any other desktop icons you might want 'at the top'.
To do this you need to drag 'My computer' to a space where there are no icons below it to the very top of the screen. This will create a toolbar which you then have a whole multitude of right click options on..
http://users.aber.ac.uk/jat2/desktop.JPG
this is a screenshot of the windows taskbar at the top with Large icons enabled (Display Properties -> Appearance -> Effects -> Large Icons....then right click the taskbar and enable large icons there too)
The screenshot above also has some other 'extra' stuff added which ill come onto later.
RIGHT. If your happy with that then skip to lower down and dont read the next 'step'
THE NEXT STEP (STEP 4)
If your unhappy with the horrible windows taskbar crap with its ****e background thing behind the icons and would prefer something more stylish (e.g.
http://users.aber.ac.uk/jat2/desktop2.JPG) read on....
Basically there is a Beta program called YzDock which can be found at
http://yz.designtechnika.com/softwar.../index_en.html
Download that and then head over too
http://www.deskmod.com/?show=showcat&cat_name=yzdock and download some icon packs. Place them in the Yzdock icon directory. Perform the same procedure as above by dragging and dropping the shorcuts (both system and programs) into the YzDock thing. Follow the FAQ if your completely stuck but eventually youll get it looking like the desktop2.jpg pic above.
Then choose where on the screen you want to position the thing.
To remove all the crap on the dekstop right click then hit 'arrange icons by' and untick 'show desktop icons' (afterall you dont need them anymore because all the ones you use are in YzDock)
The icons must be .PNG btw (just as a side note)...
STEP 5
Right, to get the 'computer' stats thing you will need CoolMon which can be found at
http://www.arsware.org/coolmon/
Use their forums to look for some scripts but atm im using....
<C:$ff9933>.::</c> <b>SYSTEM INFO</B> <C:$ff9933>::.</c>
UPTIME : <NAME=Uptime FORMAT="*d* days, *H* hrs, *M* mins" SIZE=20>
Proc % : <C:yellow><NAME=ProcUsage LEADZERO SIZE=2 FORMAT="ALL"></C>
Processes : <c:yellow><NAME=Processes SIZE=5></c>
<C:$ff9933>.::</c> <b>MEMORY</b> <C:$ff9933>::.</c>
TOTAL: <NAME=RAMTotal> MB <NAME=PageTotal> MB
USED : <C:$8080FF><NAME=RAMUsed></c> MB <NAME=PageTotal> MB
FREE : <C:$40FF00><NAME=RAMFree></C> MB <NAME=PageFree> MB
<C:$ff9933>.::</c> <b>DISK SPACE</b> <C:$ff9933>::.</c>
C:\ : <C:$ff9933><NAME=DriveSpace SIZE=2 FORMAT="C FREE"></C> MB FREE <NAME=FILEDATA FORMAT="C:\Program Files\CoolMon\drivespace.txt,5 "> - <NAME=FILEDATA FORMAT="C:\Program Files\CoolMon\drivespace.txt,4">
<C:$ff9933>.::</c> <b>NETWORK</b> <C:$ff9933>::.</c>
IP : <NAME=IPAddr>
DOWNSTREAM : <C:$ff9933><NAME=NetRead LEADZERO DECIMAL SIZE=5 FORMAT="ALL"> KB/s<C:$999999></c>
UPSTEAM : <NAME=NetWrite LEADZERO DECIMAL SIZE=5 FORMAT="ALL"> KB/s<C:$999999>
DOWNLOAD : <NAME=NetSumRead LEADZERO DECIMAL SIZE=5 FORMAT="ALL" DIV=1024> MB<C:$999999>
UPLOAD : <NAME=NetSumWrite LEADZERO DECIMAL SIZE=5 FORMAT="ALL" DIV=1024> MB<C:$999999>
Just right click the taskbar icon and hit 'display items' then paste that in. Im sure youll want to change and do more stuff tho.
STEP 6
This is tricky so you might not want to even attempt it. I did and just disabled it all....
Right this is where DHTML Programming is rather helpful and something i havnt done and only experimented with. Within WinXp there is something called 'Active Desktop' Which allows for you to display websites on your desktop. Rather handy bur also looks rather crappy.
However the good people at...
http://ad.rb-338.com have made an 'addon' which allows you to create transparent windows and do all sorts of fancy editing. What you need to do is click 'Display Properties' then hit Desktop. Then Customise Desktop then hit the 'web tab'. In there hit 'new' and point it at the index.html file that came with the ActiveDesktop Download from that ad.rb-338 site above. You need to maximise this window on your desktop so the 'active desktop window' fills the screen. At the top left there should be a little ">". Click it and change the background image to the one that came with the style you chose and then play with the 'box' settings pointing them at pages you have created. The possiblities of this little piece of software are quite extraordinary.
check out...
http://site.techviet.com/nooga/misc/...mydesktop2.jpg
and
http://www.smoovep.com/images/desktop.jpg
for examples.
However as i said its not easy and it does require 'know how' and im not even going to try and explain.
That pretty much sums up how i got from the crappy looking standard winxp stuff to something that almost resembles a cross between WinXP and a Mac. Once i can be bothered i might look into the dhtml coding and active desktop elements but for now im fairly happy with what ive got.
Youll need to add YzDock to startup if you want the icons to run there all the time. Otherwise youll have to run it yourself everytime you start.
You may also want to download the MMD3 Skin for Winamp3 which looks utterly ace with just about everything ive done here and you can see it in the above screenshots from my pc.
Apart from that happy skinning.
JJ
Linear Mode
